Just finished my first week on Pantothenic Acid (vitamin B5) for acne. I'm pretty pleased so far. The archives on this are kind of old, so I thought I'd post to help any lurkers out there that need help with pimples.

First of all, I exercise every day and practice SR 20 minutes 3 times a week. I know, it should be every day. Working on it.

I also avoid chocolate, alcohol, dairy and wheat as much as I possibly can. I also take a really good probiotic every day. After all of this, my acne was still what I would call moderate. Knowing that it's hard for me to keep to a perfect whole foods diet, the B5 was meant to supplement all the things I'm already doing.

The first 3 days, I started on 3g per day- TwinLab Pantothenic Acid 500mg. That's 6 pills per day. Noticed a bit of a breakout, which I read can happen. Also noticed stomach gurgling (I work with high school kids, who had a good laugh at my expense), minor to moderate gas (yep), and excessive urination. Nothing that really bothered me a lot.

I'm also taking a B complex vitamin with the B5 (I read something about excess B5 causing leeching of other B vitamins out of the body- can anyone comment on this?). I take 1 complex in the morning, and spread my dose of B5 throughout the day.

After the first 3 days, the initial breakout had subsided. I had no adverse reaction to the initial 3g, so I upped my dose to 5g. 10 pills spread out over the day. It's been 4 days at this dose. My skin is clearer and definitely drier. Any pimples I've gotten this week have been smaller, less red, and have healed faster than the huge 3-pus-head monsters I've gotten in the past. My pores are still about the same size, but the redness and ruddiness is mostly healed, and that makes the pores look better.

I've read that people go as high as 10-15g a day. I don't feel I need that yet, but we'll see what happens. I'll keep everyone posted. So far, I'm pretty happy.

Anytime you take a single B "in excess" and in the absence of the other Bs, you run the risk of getting out of balance with the other Bs since they all work synergistically (sp?) .....something like that anyway. Or maybe it's just that, since they do "work together", the B5 on its own wouldn't be as effective when not taken with the rest of the B-complex?